What's cuter than Lawn Fawn mice who can sew? Lawn Fawn mice who can sew and are surrounded by Eyelet Outlet Thread Brads, Scissors, Dressform and Dress Brads... with accents of Bright Stitched Flower Brads, of course!
As Kermit the Frog once observed, "It's Not Easy Being Green" and although we've taken it as our challenge title this fortnight at Shopping Our Stash, as a matter of fact, it's not alllllll that difficult to make a card that is *mostly* green... which is what we'd like to see this time. Here's my card:
Our SOS516: It's Not Easy Being Green challenge will run until Monday evening, March 11th; why not unearth some of your favorite older stash items and play along?
Meet Shelly Turtletaub, the cutest Sunflower Turtle you've ever seen! Ok, possibly the only Sunflower Turtle you've ever seen. Even as a keen Amigurumian* I've only just stumbled upon the bewilderingly awesome world of crocheted novelty turtles** there are strawberry turtles, cupcake turtles, pancake and bacon turtles, (I swear I'm not making this up!) cherry pie turtles, bowl of cereal turtles, succulent turtles, ice cream sundae turtles, cheeseburger turtles and every kind of flower turtle you can possibly imagine, including (circling back to Shelly) Sunflower Turtles!
This Crochet Sunflower Turtle Pattern from Heathers Boutique US Etsy Shop was made by special request. I used Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand Yarn, but to achieve a slightly larger turtle (from snoot to tail Shelly measures about 11") I held two strands together and used a J hook. Colors used: Honey (shell); Mustard (petals); and one strand of Sweet Pea with one strand of Dusty Green for the rest... a combination I devised because I didn't have enough of either color to make all the parts; as it turned out, the slightly mottled coloring is much more Turtle-y than either would've been alone! (I had a Bob-Ross-style "happy accidents" moment when this occurred!) :)
If you were going to design a "Crossover Creature" what would it be? Off the top of my head, my favorite ideas so far are... let's see... Banana Stegosaurus? Daisy Jellyfish? Ice Cream Cone Planets? Hmmmmm...
*Probably technically not a word, but it should be!!!
**Seriously, there are soooooo many and plenty have free patterns available, but I've LINKED TO the strand on Etsy because it had the most photos in one place together!
This week at Jingle Belles we're still creating Text-y cards - cards that prominently feature TEXT; as a background, as word art, or even just an oversized sentiment! Here's my card:
Stephanie gave me this beautiful Uniko Christmas Block Party Cover Stamp a couple of years ago and I don't use it nearly enough! I stamped it once (in Ranger Jet Black Archival) on plain white cardstock; then re-stamped the Santa, the Merry and the holly leaves on scraps of patterned paper which I fussycut and pieced into the design. I worked in a little more color with markers and pencils, then added a couple of Eyelet Outlet Matte Finish Enamel Dots, lots of tiny White Pearls, and five styles of EO Brads... can you spot them all?*
Jingle Belles' "Text Me" Challenge runs until next Wednesday evening, February 28th and all holiday cardmakers are invited to join the fun!
*From top to bottom the brad styles are: Star, Gift Brad, Pine Tree, Poinsettia and Candy Cane Brad.
If, like me (Lauren) you enjoy watching the birds at your backyard feeder, you will have noticed quite a bit of mealtime chatter, and you may have wondered what it's all about. With the help of our handsome Eyelet Outlet Bluebird and Robin Brads and some fun speech bubbles, here is my fanciful idea of what those birds are saying to each other. Card backgrounds made from Wide Sky Washi, Wood Tape and Music Note Washi Tape.
It's the second-to-last Mandala Monday of February (already?!) and this one is colorful in a restrained sort of way; and... more unusually... pretty close to being entirely symmetrical! Test-driving the new set of 2.5mm Posca Paint Pens that Gina gave me for Christmas, mixed in with some of my older .7mm ones, in my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger; which, incidentally, is an absolutely wonderful size to work in and I'm enjoying very much!
This fortnight's Jingle Belles theme is called, "TEXT ME" for which we'd like you to create a holiday card that celebrates text. That might mean using letter stickers, dictionary pages, texty patterned paper, or just creating a card where the sentiment is the star... just using a small sentiment doesn't count - text of some kind should be the star of the show. Use your words, get creative and make sure you get TEXTY!
Time for a brand new challenge at Shopping Our Stash, and if you've surmised, from the title, that the brief is to include a human face on your card, well done, you're exactly right!
Something I learned while choosing supplies for this challenge is that I have A LOT more cute critter stamps than I do humans. I'm sure that says something about me, but let's move on! I've definitely had MFT's Polynesian Paradise stamp set for years and years (possibly a decade?) and I suspect it's probably out of print, but I still love it and use it, as you can see. This time I stamped all the elements on scraps of ancient, Basic Grey not-quite-solid-colored papers, then added a bit of shading on top with my Prismacolor pencils. I diecut that super-chunky Lawn Fawn sentiment twice, so that I could add the white layer behind the red and have it pop out a bit more. I also used a black brush pen to add just a tiny bit of depth around the edges for the same reason. The square panel with the foliage is from a company called Paperhouse and I have no idea how I came to have it; behind that is more Basic Grey solid-not-solid goodness.
SOS's Put Your Best Face Forward challenge runs until the evening of February 26 and we'd love for you to join the fun!
Longing for Spring? Join me at Paper Anthology for a bright and bloomin' class, featuring Wendy Vecchi's beautiful new Vintage Florals die set; plus additional elements from Wendy'c Garden Collection by Spellbinders. We'll do some diecutting (obviously, lol) including the inset diecut technique; we'll hand-ink a beautiful set of blooms; and create a big (BIG!) blossom using one of Wendy's own Tip Tuesday ideas!
Visit the Paper Anthology Blog for all the dates, details and sign-up information. Paper Anthology is located at 717 US Highway 46 in Kenvil, New Jersey in the heart of beautiful Morris County, accessible by Routes 80, 10 and 202/206. Click here to see it on an interactive map!
It's the second week of our "Rudolph the RED-Nosed Reindeer" theme at Jingle Belles, so we're still creating holiday cards that are predominantly red!
Eyelet Outlet Dinosaur Brads make any Valentine or birthday card more RAWR-some! This handsome family is frolicking in the distance, under a blue sky bright with Sun and Cloud Brads. The diecut dino in the foreground is looking cute in every sense because he (or she?) is sporting a Small Eye Brad.
The Lunar New Year is technically still a few days away (February 10th) but it's never too early to celebrate, imo, especially since it's a Dragon Year (my Chinese zodiac sign) and specifically a Wood Dragon Year (I was born in 1964). I've read conflicting ideas about whether the year of one's own sign is generally lucky OR the reverse. But I love dragons, and mandalas, as well as interesting holidays and traditions, so let's just go with it!
I found this beautiful dragon illustration in a children's book; the zodiac calendar and sheet music are from my stash; and all the flowers and circle motifs are cut from gorgeous paper I found at Pearl River Mart. The substrate for all this collagey goodness is my Dina Wakley 6x6 Kraft Journal from Ranger.
Happy mail ALWAYS makes my day, so I try to make sure I send out plenty of special cards to friends and family. This A7 card features Wendy Vecchi's gorgeous Vintage Florals die set (new from Spellbinders) colored with three shades of yellow Archival Ink from Ranger (Buttercup, Sunflower and Goldenrod, to be precise) and popped up on layers of foam tape for extra dimension.
This fortnight at Jingle Belles we're SEEING RED... in a good way! We're making cards in any size and shape, featuring any theme, with any ingredients but... they need to be predominantly RED! Sound like fun? Then why not join Stephanie and myself and get a jump on those holiday cards!
This card is an example of what my friend Leslie would've called "parts is parts"! By which I mean, I didn't actually create any of the elements, I just cut out, cut up or arranged existing elements. And I'm not to proud to admit it! Let's face it, if we're going to make a holiday card every week for the next forty-eight or so weeks, they're probably not all going to have several hours of stamping, embossing and fancy coloring, and that's FINE! In this case, I used an amazing sketch from Atlantic Hearts (#561) for which the challenge was over, but I fell in love with the distinctive "three triangles" concept and I thank them for the inspiration. All of the elements on top were cut or diecut from various older journal cards and patterned paper (Authentique, Simple Stories and American Crafts to name a few) and I'm really very happy with the result.
Our Rudolph the RED-Nosed Reindeer challenge runs until the evening of Wednesday, February 14th (aka Valentine's Day) and all holiday cardmakers are welcome to join us at Jingle Belles!
